movingtoaussieland

I just bought a worldwide annual travel insurance policy which covered me for up to 31 days for any trip - that meant I had plenty of time to register for medicare and get my company health insurance set up when I arrived. My MA submitted a copy of the travel insurance policy with my application and it was approved. Of course, this worked for me because I have a company health scheme that will pick up the slack from Medicare now so I won't need a separate policy, if you know you'll need your own policy when you arrive though, the advice above would be a much better idea!

Haha, that's exactly how I felt. Enjoy it! Yeah, landed 10 days ago, loving it so far. Flight was great, but I flew business class so I had plenty of space and a flat bed to sleep on. I've done the flight from London to Perth a few times in economy though and whilst it's tedious and can get a bit uncomfortable, it's not all that bad. It's absolutely worth it when you arrive, at least I've always thought so. Best of luck with getting everything organised - the fun really starts now!

WOOOO!!! Congratulations Pinkypiglet!! Brilliant news. Go celebrate!

Seems like a lot depends on where you go and who you speak to! I went into one of the central Melbourne Medicare centres on Tuesday to register - they gave me the forms to fill in, took a copy of my passport, jotted down the details of my 457 visa from a copy of the grant letter I had downloaded on my phone (didn't think to print it out!) and that was it - whole process done in less than 10 minutes. Told me it could take up to 4 weeks for the card to turn up but if I needed the number I just had to phone up and they should be able to give me it by the end of the week - will give them a call tomorrow to find out if that's true! :-) I had my EHIC card and NHS number with me but they didn't ask for anything like that.

:chatterbox: Get in! Congrats, I shall commence the search for a good celebration venue next week ;-) Hopefully everyone else waiting will get equally good news soon.

Hooray!!! This has totally made my morning :-) Congratulations Kezzles, excellent news! Now comes the fun part of getting everything organised so you can go. Best of luck getting it all sorted - will see you for a celebratory drink in Melbs soon. Yay!! :jiggy:

Fingers and toes crossed! Just checking in to see if you'd heard anything - it'll come through soon I'm sure. Had all my stuff shipped today, such a stressful process!! You've got all this to come soon! :-)

Hi Kez, They don't always offer it on 457's - it's "discretionary" but I certainly got the impression that had I been flying economy they probably would have given me the extra (just lay it on thick with the "I know it's technically a temp visa but I'm moving my whole life and it is a one way ticket") I think you have to contact the airline direct to get the additional allowance. I emailed them and got a surprisingly unfriendly response so I called them to beg instead! The guy on the phone was very polite and even checked with a supervisor, but the answer was still a resounding no! I wouldn't bank on getting it, but it's definitely worth a crack! Yeah, if I'd personally forked out that much for the flight and not got the additional allowance I would be seething! It went up from £2500 on the Thursday morning to over £3500 by Friday lunchtime, and there are still plenty of seats available so it's kind of annoying! My friend reckons they use tracking software and bump up the prices when they know people are looking at them a lot - how rude! They are a really good airline otherwise though, I'll be flying with them a lot from Melbourne to our Singapore office so hoping I'll have enough frequent flyer miles to get a decent flight back to the UK when I decide it's time to visit! :-) Take it you've had no word on the visa grant yet?? Still keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Hi all, Just a quick update on this thread for anyone looking at flying Singapore Airlines for the extra baggage - I've just spoken to their customer services team and they said that there is some discretion (and apparently they have set criteria) to offer additional baggage for Economy class ticket holders travelling on migrant visas (which would now bring the 30kg standard up to 40kg) BUT there is NO additional allowance for people travelling business class, so if you're thinking of flying business class to get the extra baggage, I would check on wither you can get the same on an economy ticket first. My argument that I spent 3 times the amount on a business class flight to get the same allowance as people in economy was "understood" but made no difference! I'm travelling on a 457, so a perm visa may have made a difference but who knows. I would have flown business class regardless as it's covered by my company's travel policy, but I would have thought for a flight that cost nearly £4000 they could have chucked me an extra 10kg of luggage! I'll probably take a few extra kilos anyway and just ditch stuff with my parents if they decide to charge me at the airport (knowing my luck they'll have flagged me up as wanting to sneak extra luggage through)- their excess baggage from the UK is an extortionate US$70 per kilo (currently about £43) so no way I'm paying for the extra. Looks like I'll be needing that air freight after all!

I did my LPC in Guildford in 2006/07 and the fees were over £9,500. Looks like it's gone up to over £11k now - http://www.law.ac.uk/postgraduate/postgraduate-course-fees/ Depends a lot on the course and the location, but wherever you go it won't be cheap. Just to weigh in on the solicitor point - you would need to send full details of everything you studied as part of your degree and LPC (including course outlines etc) to the law society equivalent of whichever state you're looking at. They assess where there are gaps in your local knowledge and send you a list of subjects that you need to study before you're allowed to practice as a solicitor in that state. An alternative you may want to look into is whether you could satisfy the criteria for the "judicial or other legal professionals nec" occupation on the CSOL. That's what my 457 has been granted under, but I work in-house as a legal officer rather than practicing as a solicitor. You would need a bit of relevant experience under your belt, but when I asked my MA if it had to be a full 5 years (I was a few months short) she said having a law degree and the LPC meant I probably wouldn't need the same level of experience. Not sure what the market is like for in-house and similar sorts of non-practicing legal roles is though, I'm lucky as transferring within my current company so haven't had to look at the job market generally.

Just booked my flight - 2 weeks tomorrow I'll be on my way!! DON'T PANIC!!!!!

Thanks Kez!! I am so excited!! Yours is coming soon too I'm sure. I can smell those celebratory Melbourne drinks already! Will definitely keep in touch and will be waiting to see when yours arrives. Fingers crossed this is a sign immigration are back up to full speed. :chatterbox:

Thanks Pinky, I'm sure yours won't be far away. Good luck!!

Didn't feel quick to me!! But yes, definitely could have been worse. Full timeline is in my signature, but from the date the SBS was approved (so they'd actually treat my application as worth looking at) it's been about 7 weeks, take out the couple of weeks they were closed over Christmas and it's about 5 weeks.

:jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy::jiggy: MY VISA HAS ARRIVED!!!!! Had an email from my MA earlier this evening to say it's been granted!!! I am so excited but sooooo freaked out by how much I have to do!! Will hopefully get a flight booked tomorrow and then the mad panic can begin. Hooray!!!! Fingers crossed this means the rest won't be too far behind for you guys! :-)

Hey Kezzles, I couldn't figure it out from the immi account either - mine says "Processing" next to my name (above the document list), don't know if that means anything though! I think your MA gets an email notification when a CO has been allocated, so maybe check with them? Torture is definitely how I'd describe it! I was offered the job in early August, actually been doing the job from the UK since September...getting pretty tired now! :cry: I really thought things would go fast once the nomination was approved so the 3 week wait since then has been horrid. Keep your chin up mate, it will all fall into place soon! :wubclub:

E111 card is probably easier to sort out - it's the EHIC card you should have for travelling around Europe. It's free - check out http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx for more info and to apply (if you don't already have one). Will be digging mine out later to make sure it's not expired so thanks for the tip Foo!!

Thanks Pinkypiglet! They requested a medical 3 weeks ago so I'm kinda hoping they would have requested any other additional paperwork at the same time (wishful thinking perhaps?!) As soon as I hear anything you guys will probably be the first to know!! Yup, I was up having an email conversation with my migration manager at 4am (he's in Hong Kong) - I like to think of it as adjusting to the new time zone ahead of the game :biggrin:

Hey, nothing exciting to report yet. Spoke to my MA yesterday, mainly to vent some frustration, and they confirmed I do have a CO allocated and they are reviewing my application so fingers crossed I'll hear something soon.

Hey, Where are you applying from and to as the wait time appears to vary quite a lot depending on whether you're in a high or low risk country and also which state you're applying to live in as the different immi centres will have different processing times? Hopefully you'll hear something good soon. If I were you I'd contact your MA for an update.

My shipping thing is a bit of a joke so you probably won't want to take any tips from me - the shipping company is in California, have to use them as a preferred supplier of our US-based relocation company. So my relocation manager (in Brisbane) instructed the California shipping company, they sent a guy from a relocation service based in London to do the shipping assessment, who confirmed that my shipment will go from Southampton (i.e. about 2 miles from my house) but will be organised by the people in California and packed by the Londoners. Utter insanity. If it was my choice I'd probably go with a movecube from Seven Seas as I don't have a lot of stuff and they've had some really good reviews on here.

Thanks! Yep, going to be utter chaos. :-) Basically, just get everything in as quickly as you can and then just try not to go insane waiting. We were told to expect 8 weeks for the business sponsorship approval so when it came through in 6 we were pleasantly surprised. That needs to be in place before they'll allocated a case officer to look at the nomination and your application, but that doesn't mean you can't lodge them and have them ready and waiting. All my friends and family know, as do all my colleagues so I get a daily barrage of "are you still here?", "when do you leave?" and "what country are you in now?" I can't wait for the day when I can actually give them a date! In the meantime I'm cramming in lots of farewell drinks and dinners in case I don't get a chance once the craziness of actually getting ready to go kicks in.

Hey Kezzles Definitely ask them to pay the rent/deposit, it's a standard cost of relocating - my company would have been paying 2 months rent to cover my notice period if we hadn't decided to risk it and given notice anyway (now slightly panicking as have to be out by 28th Feb -come on visa!!) It's worth a try, and my relocation manager said it's really common so it shouldn't come as a shock. My to do list is growing daily, every time I cross something off I think of two things to replace it. Not sure how that's even possible!! Figure I'll just keep plodding through it and what doesn't get done by the time I go will just have to be sorted out from the other side of the world. No big deal! :err: Thankfully my worldly possessions don't amount to much (shipping company came back after their survey with "well you're well within your allowance, sure you don't want to take anything else?") but trying to find the time to price up the replacement costs for what I am shipping is proving tricky! Sanity is long gone for me, I hope it's already emigrated and I'll catch up with it when I get there. @PeteNAmanda - I am sure you will love Australia. I went to university in Perth for a year several years ago and loved it, we went to Queensland for the Easter hols and it was beautiful. Cape Trib is a great tip - it's pretty steamy and humid up there but it is an amazing place. The Atherton Tablelands are also worth taking the car for a spin around (some of the roads are a little scary but you get used to it) and Cairns is great fun. Port Douglas is also a pretty cool place to go for a wander around. So many places! Make the time to go exploring and enjoy it.

Welcome aboard! No problem - we submitted the company part first while we sorted out the remaining bits and pieces for my application (my contract needed finalising, references from previous employers etc.). You can submit them all together BUT they won't look at the nomination and your application until the business has been approved as a sponsor, so the sooner they can get that bit in the better. Medicals depend on your personal circumstances for those jobs that don't require them as standard (healthcare, teaching that kind of thing all need medicals). I was asked to do one because I declared a pre-existing condition that they wanted some more info about but it was only a standard medical, no xrays or bloods, took about half an hour and cost £90 so not too bad. Hope that helps. I'm really hoping my visa comes through this week - I'm meant to be going in 3 weeks but can't make any firm plans until the damn visa comes through! It is the most frustrating process I've ever been through!

Hi there. My timeline (for application to Melbourne) is below - Kezzles and I have been keeping each other up to date on our progress (both in terms of the visas and our growing levels of obsessive behaviour), glad to have some more people on the crazy train! :biggrin: I know exactly what you mean about the employer part being a pain, my company in Melbourne took over 2 months to get everything sorted out and submitted - most frustrating time ever!! It will all be worth it in the end though... All the best!